Color slides from the first years of the Korean War are some of my favorites. 35mm Color photography was in full swing and lots of soldiers/servicemen were snapping shots to send back home. In this case, we see a member of the 18th Maintenance Squadron posing in his leather jacket complete with squadron patch. The patch appears to show a white P-51 being sloppily repaired by a mechanic. Maybe someone has a squadron patch scan to add to this post?

The man in the photo is named Robert Duffy, a WWII P-47 pilot who crashed near the town of Le Mesnilbus in 1944. Click here to read his story!

You’ve done it again – Robert Duffy was my grandfather! After being shot down over Le Minibus, he was held as a POW in Stalag Luft 3 for nine months before returning home when the war ended.

I found out a few years ago he never received a Purple Heart for his injuries and did quite a bit of research to get it for him. You can see the news story at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WkcikQN72c&feature=youtu.be. I was an active duty Air Force officer at the time, and conveniently worked right next door to the Air Force Historical Research Agency. They offered a wealth of information on the different units my grandfather served in.

My family may be able to help in your quest for WWII and Korean War color pictures – I’ll go through what we have. In the meantime, none of us had ever seen this picture – thanks very much for posting!

I’m excited to help reunite a family member with a “long lost” color shot of a relative. In my opinion, this is a top-tier Korean War portrait shot – one worthy of framing. I’m more than happy to send you the original slide or a high res edited version of the photo. Glad to reconnect and make history a little more tangible.